


Another Jump

by Hiraeth (MoroiiAngel)



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, First thing for Ao3!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-10-13
Packaged: 2018-04-20 13:52:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4789613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoroiiAngel/pseuds/Hiraeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose Tyler has been using the dimension cannon to jump through universes.  The stars are going out, and he's the only one she knows who can help.  She's finally found the right universe, but it isn't quite the right Doctor...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hurray, a commonly used plot device! This story was started as a gift for rosetylerrun on tumblr as a part of 2014's Doctor Who secret santa exchange. She specifically requested dimension cannon!Rose meeting the Doctor out of order around Christmas time. Enjoy!

He felt it before he heard it. It’d be hard to hear, with all the Christmas music piping out of the nearby window. It began as a faint shiver, goose pimples rising on his flesh, and then as a rising sense of wrongness, a sense of something tearing. As though he could feel someone ripping paper from several rooms over. He began running before he could process it consciously. He hadn’t felt it since…

He rounded the corner in time to see a figure collapse to the ground. Picking up his pace, he ran over to her, his shoes (black and clunky, why did he ever give up the trainers?) slipping on patches of ice. He was bent over her, already grabbing hold of her elbow before she had properly come to. Her head tilted up, her large mouth open slightly to let out a puff of surprised air, and her eyes locked on to his.

She didn’t know him.

“Oh, I - I’m sorry. So clumsy,” she began getting herself to her feet, and he launched back into helping her a little belatedly. “Just a bit of a tumble, all this, er,” she looked around herself, and he could see her carefully regulating her expression, carefully hiding the analysis. “Snow and ice,” Rose Tyler finished a little lamely, and then looked back at him. “Thanks, mate. No need to worry about me.” And then she pointedly glanced down at her own elbow.

He still had a hand on it.

“Oh! Oh, of course, no trouble, no trouble at all! Just saw you fall, you know, thought I’d be a good samaritan, help you to your feet.” He released her and pinwheeled backwards but wasn’t able to make himself go very far. He was drinking in her presence as though she were rain in the desert, and it was clear she was already becoming uncomfortable with the attention.

She had never really understood how beautiful she was.

“Right,” the word came out a bit slower than was typical, somewhere between reassuring and skeptical. “Well, since I have you here, might as well ask. Seen anything weird happen lately?”

He barked out a laugh. Right to the point, was Rose. “Searching for weird things?” He asked her, eyes crinkling. She shrugged in response.

“Really more looking for someone who is attracted to weird things,” she said, trying to sound casual. He smiled.

“Well, I did hear there was some sort of crash downtown.“ Which was half true. He’d actually just dropped off Amelia and Rory in their flat and was about to leave when the TARDIS sensors had warned him of a Solyule ship falling towards the city. "Was just going there myself, actually,” he said, trying to sound casual. Hoping she’d notice. Hoping she’d ask. Maybe looking at his own fingernails had been too casual, though, because when she responded her voice was coming from farther away. 

“Thanks!” She called back at him, already several meters down the fairy-light strewn street. His eyes widened in alarm, and he motored after her. There was no way he’d lose her again. At least not yet. Already his brain was screaming at him that he should just let her go, leave it be, not get involved. Because she had to keep going. She hadn’t found him yet. For her, the stars were still going out. For her, they were still separated. 

They were separate again for him. 

How would he explain that to her?

It was enough to make him slow down his pace after her. But he didn’t stop. He couldn’t. Just watching her moving in front of him, even slowly, was too tempting. For the first time in his life he felt he sympathized with people who looked back in longing at their high school days, as though they were the most important times in their lives. He had never been able to not chase after important moments in time. He put on a burst of speed and jogged up beside her. "Well, I was going there myself, as I said. Mind a bit of company?" He grinned her his new grin, and she looked at him. Was he imagining her mouth tugging up at the corner? 

"Well, all right, but don’t start thinking you can follow me everywhere." He nodded, cheerful, and allowed himself glances at her every few seconds. Her hair was a bit longer, she wore a blue leather coat and denim, and she really couldn’t be very warm in that outfit in this weather, but she was acting like it didn’t affect her. Much like he was currently acting, except of course it _didn’t_ affect him.

"So, tell me about this someone you’re looking for,” he heard himself say. “Maybe I could help." 

"I really doubt it," she said, her tone tired. They walked forward in silence for nearly a block before Rose relented. "He’s, well, he’s tall. Skinny. Usually wears a suit, his favourite’s brown pinstripes. Talks too much." She hadn’t looked up at him since he’d joined her walking, but now she did. "Sounds like it might be anyone, really, hmm?”

He had to admit it kind of did. But before the Doctor could say anything, Rose spoke up again. “‘Cept he’s not just anyone. He’s… he’s just very important, yunno?" He heard her take a deep breath, trying to regulate herself again. _Oh, Rose…_ "I’ll find him, eventually. It’s just hard to find someone in all of–” She pulled up hard, and the space between words stretched a bit too long before she lied. “Cardiff." 

"I don’t doubt it," the Doctor chirruped, trying to smooth away her worry and stress. "But you will find him. I’m sure of it." He tried to weigh his words, but Rose didn’t react. She didn’t even say "really?” like he had hoped she would. He was being torn between ushering her quickly on her way, or tearing away his invisibility cloak and keeping her with him for at least a little while… After all, she had searched for him for years. Who knew what she’d got up to in all that time? He wished desperately that there had been time to ask. But now, well. He could find out, couldn’t he? First hand. He came to a resolution, and turned to her, his mouth already opening to speak her name. But she was running again, away from him. Again. 

He looked beyond her and saw the reason why. There was a great crowd of people at the end of the street, looking at something on fire. He picked up his own feet then, catching her up with some effort. She could leg it faster than he was properly used to, but it was refreshing. His legs were still long, and they wanted to stretch. He pulled up beside her in time to hear her questioning the people nearby. 

“Thing just plopped out of the sky,” a man was telling her. “All a-bleeding-blaze. Not exactly the kind of Christmas fire one expects." He was glaring over Rose’s shoulder at the hunk of burning metal as though it was the Grinch and he was the Mayor of Whoville. 

"Too right! Let’s just see what this is all about then!" The Doctor proclaimed before wandering over towards the wreck. Without so much as a thought, he whipped out his sonic and scanned the craft. "Hmm. Nobody home. Strange." He turned back to Rose with a thoughtful look on his face. "I wonder if they were able to jettison out, or if it’s been… Oh. Oh, right. Um. Oops.” He had forgotten the all important talk-to-her-first maneuver. At least he’d planned it? Rose’s face was undergoing an transformation that defied description. She had gone white as a sheet, but even as he looked at her she was going red, the shock in her face draining into an expression that reminded him (terrifyingly) of Jackie. 

He turned his body fully around to face her, straightening his spine (and, unconsciously, his bow tie). Better to face the thing head on, now that the cat was out of the bag. He waited for the first rage to fall on him. And waited. 

It didn’t come.

Instead, Rose was looking at him in a way she had never looked at him before. It took him a moment to register exactly what it was that was written on her face. It was, in a word, betrayal. She felt betrayed. Didn’t trust him any more, likely. Good, he thought bitterly. The more people who come to their senses on that front, the better. And then he gave himself a mental shake. This was Rose he was talking about here. The thought of anyone hurting her, least of all him, made his insides roil. Without making any moves towards her, the Doctor tried to make his features as kind and understanding as he could manage. 

“Keep looking, Rose. Please. Don’t stop here." 

The words hung in the ash-ridden air for a few, brief moments. Then, he was hit in the chest with what felt like the full weight of Rose Tyler, and he wasn’t entirely sure if she was trying to hit him or hug him. By the sounds of things, she wasn’t sure either.

”… you idiot! Leading me on like that, how could you, I can’t believe it’s you, God, I’ve looked so long, I don’t - you’ve regenerated, how long-? But D-Doctor!“ The end came out in a stutter that was accompanied by an intake of breath, and _was she trying not to cry_? The Doctor brought his hands up to her elbows, trying to steady her just with that motion. 

"Rose. The craft." He looked down at her until she was able to look back at him. Abruptly he let her go, turned back to the wreck, and went back to scanning it. Better this, better work, than trying to deal with the entirety of their emotions all at once. A little voice in the back of his head berated him for running away, but then running was what he did best, so he moved his legs to take himself closer to the hunk of metal. The fire was dying down even as they stood there. Now, he could hear somewhere behind him people in the crowd reassuring themselves that Rose was okay, that she hadn’t been attacked by some looney in a tweed jacket, and that yes, of course they should contact the authorities, why hadn’t they thought of that. Leave it to Rose to distract people from her own pain. He wondered, silent, sarcastic and bitter, where she had learned that little ploy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cat's out of the bag... but what about this strange ship?

With a great shuddering breath and a steeling of shoulders, Rose Tyler went to work.

She directed the crowd’s attention, gave people jobs so that they felt they were involved, and generally distracted them so that the Doctor (oh, god, the Doctor, she’d found him she’d found himshe’dfoundhim) could get to work. It came easily to her; she had been required to deflect attention and deal with crowds when working for Pete. Before the canon, but after the year-long depressive spell. In the universe where her Mum was (she still was incapable of thinking of it as her own; it would never feel like her own) Rose had joined up with Torchwood after nagging from her mum, Mickey, Jake, and eventually Torchwood executives as well. After the Cyberman invasion, it had taken Torchwood a while to get back on its feet. While it was not operating at full capacity, things had slid, and they were pressed to find new staff to help catch up with everything. It hadn’t been until she had told the Doctor at Bad Wolf Bay that she was joining them that she had even truly decided she would.

Another year on, Rose had begged her way onto the team that was looking to reinitialize the cross-dimension initiatives. When they asked for volunteers to help test-run the new cannon, Rose was more than willing to give it a go. On the face of it, it was to help discover why the stars were going out. But Rose had hatched a plan, right from the start, to use it to find the Doctor. And, if she could figure out what was going on with the stars, then she’d be happy to fix that too.

After all, she was the “Defender of the Earth”.

Once the crowd before her had been properly dealt with, she turned back to the man who had given her that label. He was done scanning the craft, presumably. She made the assumption due to the fact that all she could see of the Doctor was his rump as he was tucked half inside of the wreckage. What on earth was he digging for? And really, should they still be hanging around? Back in the parallel world Torchwood would be on high alert after something like this. And if this world’s Torchwood - or UNIT - came to the crash site to do damage control, and found not just the Doctor but her... Rose knew they would try to take her in for questioning. And maybe tests. After all, it wasn’t every day that someone from a parallel universe simply busted in.

Now she got to thinking about it, Rose was surprised that no authorities seemed to be present yet. Not even the local constabulary. She vaguely recalled giving the portly gentleman she’d first spoken with the task of informing them. Had he done it? Rose scanned the diminished crowd but didn’t see him. Maybe he didn’t own a cell phone. Regardless she felt that she had hung around here long enough. She needed to tell the Doctor about the much larger crisis at hand, anyway.

She walked over to stand beside him, addressing the small of his back. “What’ve you found, then?” Her voice came out more clipped than she would have liked. He had been there, helped her to her feet, walked several blocks with her making idle conversation, and never once told her - Rose was angry. It was an irrational anger. She could hardly believe it of herself. Over fifteen canon jumps looking for this man spread out over months; nearly a year now. Bad Wolf Bay had been nearly three years ago. All the time she had missed him with an ache that went beyond anything she’d felt before. Despite all of it, she was cross. In all the times she had imagined their reunion (and she’d imagined it plenty) never had she thought he would _hide_ from her.

The Doctor was making no signs of having heard her. Bloody typical. He had heard her tone, likely, and was running from it. How many regenerations distant was this Doctor from hers? And yet, still running however he could. This new baby-faced version of the Doctor was apparently going with passive aggressive. Brilliant. However, he was still the Doctor. She still needed his help. She still missed him badly, even when he was standing right next to her. So she tried to suppress her annoyance and treat him like... well. The least she could do was still treat him like The Doctor.

“Don’t think I’ve ever seen something like this before, Doctor,” she tried again. Her curiosity was genuine when she asked, “Where’s it from?”

From inside the craft, the Doctor’s muffled voice drifted out to her. “As I suspected, Solyule in make, but nobody seems to be at home. The escape pods weren’t jettisoned, but it looks as though the life-support packs are all gone. Shame they’re a smaller sort, it’s hard to reach - Hello, what’s this?” He crowed, and then made to pull out of the craft. As he moved backwards he rapped his head sharply on the side of the ship.

He sucked in air through his teeth and grabbed at his head. Rose instinctively held out her hands to him, trying to keep him steady as he wobbled. “Are you alright?” She asked, eyes wide in surprise. She was not used to the Doctor being clumsy. But he straightened, and after a few ginger touches to the back of his skull, his expression brightened again.

“Right as rain, Rose Tyler, and look at this this!” He exclaimed, holding forth what looked to Rose like an ordinary lump of metal.

The look she gave him was obviously not impressed enough, for he barreled on. “Come on, this is great! I’ve been needing one of these for ages!” He gave her a grin and when she steadfastly refused to be excited with him, he became a bit petulant. “The old girl needs it! It’s an integral part of her design. It whirls around, Rose Tyler. Whirls! And, as though that weren’t enough, it also glows!” She cocked an eyebrow at him, and he shoved the thing in his pocket. “Fine, be like that, but you’ll be begging forgiveness when you see it in action. Come along then, Tyler, and let’s get this back to the TARDIS.” He began marching away from the wreckage.

Rose had to admit this was not what she had been expecting. In fact she had imagined having to drag him away from this particular mystery. But in the end it was what she had been planning. Just because things hadn’t gone as she planned them didn’t mean she needed to stand about in a huff (although she was half-inclined to, just to see what he’d do about it). As she started after the Doctor and away from the warm crash site Rose began to really feel how chill it was. The snow around her and the fairy lights around lamp posts hadn’t really begun to click in her head until now. Was it Christmas time?

Momentarily distracted by the lights she didn’t even notice the black truck pull up beside her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mystery of the black truck revealed! Also, the mystery of why Rose isn't terribly surprised to see a certain someone in The Stolen Earth.

“Rosie?”

Rose ripped her eyes from the fairy lights winding their way up the lamp posts to goggle at the source of the voice. It was one she’d know anywhere, despite not having heard it in far too long. 

“Jack?” Her own voice came out strangled with surprise. Suddenly the truck’s driver side door had been flung open and she found herself in the arms of Captain Jack Harkness. Her entire body froze. Rose felt as though she couldn’t breathe. She had thought he was dead. She barely remembered getting back to Satellite 5, and when her memories solidified, they started with the Doctor burning in front of her, and then crashing the Tardis. And then he’d been sick. They'd been stuck on Earth for a few months. And then they’d been off on more adventures, and she had thought; she had assumed... After a moment Jack must have noticed how stiff she was, because he pulled back with a frown on his face. 

“Hey, what’s the matter?” He asked, hands on her shoulders as he searched her face for some explanation for her attitude. Rose finally found the power to move her eyes up to meet Jack’s. She tried to breathe, to stay calm. 

“I’m sorry.” She began, slowly but steady, “it’s just that I thought you-” Her voice cut off unexpectedly. Rose fought with her emotions while they threatened to choke her. Unable to force her words through her tightening throat, she wrapped her arms around him. He returned the hug cheerfully, though with a bit of hesitance she couldn’t blame him for. With her face pressed against his shoulder she was able to take a deep breath, and then it a little easier to explain herself. “I thought you were dead! After... after the Daleks... I never knew where you’d gone!” She pulled back a bit, looking up at him. “What on earth are you doing here?” How was he on earth? How long had he been there? Why wasn’t he with the Doctor? 

Jack’s face was unreadable for a moment. Then suddenly he seemed to come to a decision, and he was bright and cheery once more. “Ah, managed to get myself back to Earth eventually. You know me, got my vortex manipulator, jumped back, joined up with Torchwood trying to hunt you guys down.” If Rose was not so emotionally compromised herself, she might have noticed the way his smile stopped reaching his eyes. 

“You’re with Torchwood?” Rose said. “So am I! I mean, not-”

“Not anymore, Rosie,” Jack interrupted her. His eyes looked strained as he said, “Had a bad year.” Then he blinked and it was gone. “Anyway, doesn’t stop bad habits from showing themselves.” He jerked a thumb back at the crashed ship. “Was in the neighbourhood when I saw the thing falling from the sky. Thought I’d come do what I could. Had I known you were here I might have just left it to the professionals!” There was a smile in his voice that didn’t quite reach his eyes. There was an awful lot that Jack was not saying. Rose was beginning to wonder what he was hiding. 

“You, uh, You with the Doc?” Jack asked, and there was something loaded about his question that Rose did not like. Things here were just a little bit too off for Rose’s tastes. Had she managed to cannon herself into an alternate universe that had only very minor differences from her own original one? That was possible, but it didn’t feel true. This place felt like home. 

“I was,” she decided to tell him. “He swanned off that direction just before you showed up.” She pointed down the street the Doctor had taken. 

“Well, he can take care of himself for a second,” Jack said as he turned towards the crashed ship. “Might as well take a look at this while I’m here.” And he started walking over towards the craft, flipping open his manipulator as he did. A light snow began to fall as he dialed something into the tiny machine.

“The Doctor did already have a look at it. Said it was Solyule, or somethin’,” Rose told him as they walked back over to the craft. As they came to a stop beside it Jack nodded, eyes on the device on his wrist. It must have been scanning the debris. Rose hugged herself as Jack worked. “What year is it?” Rose suddenly thought to ask, and that was enough to rip Jack’s eyes from the screen. 

There was a heavy pause before Jack said, “2011.” Then his manipulator gave off a little pinging sound. “Hmm. Says there was something in here.”

“Well, the Doctor practically crawled right into the thing when we got here.” Rose suggested, but Jack was frowning. 

“No, no, there was something else here.” He looked up at Rose. “My scans show that, yeah, the Doc was here. But so was something else. Something that’s not here anymore.” He turned his eyes back to the ship, his frown deepening. He dialed a few more things into his manipulator. “Where did you say he went?”

Rose was getting worried. When Jack came over all serious like this, something was well and truly wrong. “He... he found something. Said he was going to bring it to the Tardis.” Her voice got quieter as she spoke. The Doctor was in trouble. He had been in trouble, and neither he nor Rose had even sensed it. It was silly to berate herself - how many hundred of times had the Doctor found some unknowable piece of Alien tech that he simply claimed for his own? This time had seemed no different. 

“We’ve got to get to him.” Rose said, suddenly all business. “The Tardis has to be close by, you know he never goes too far from it.”

They started back to Jack’s truck. “Boy, don’t I. With good reason too. D’you remember that one planet with the eight foot tall people?”

“And the volcano? Oh yeah, how could I forget?” The two of them smiled at each other as Jack opened the passenger side door for Rose. She slid in, buckling up as Jack got himself into the driver’s seat. 

“Gotta admit, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone rock the sacrifice look as well as you,” Jack teased as he put the truck in gear and started off in the direction the Doctor had gone. Rose smiled. They hadn’t seen each other in years - the last time they had they’d been in grave peril. And yet here they were, reminiscing about old adventures, teasing, Jack flirting. He was the same old Jack. 

Well, thought Rose, looking at Jack as he drove, maybe not exactly the same. Sure he was wearing practically the same outfit (a habit he must have picked up from the Doctor) but there was something about his eyes that made her think a lot of time had passed since she had last seen him. She remembered her comment about the bad year and bit her lip. What could have happened to him? How long had it been, for him? As Jack pulled on to the road, and Rose scanned the sidewalks, she asked him. 

“It feels like ages since I saw you, Jack,” she started, trying to sound casual, not taking her eyes from the passing snowy pathways. “But I’d say it’s actually been something closer to 5 years. For me.” She paused for a moment, and she could hear Jack holding his breath, bracing against her oncoming question. But she had to ask. It was the best way she could think of to start learning what had happened in his life since the last time she’d seen him. 

“How long for you?” 

“I don’t know, exactly.” He paused long enough that Rose finally pulled her eyes away from the window to glance at him. “You want it in relative time, lived time, or ...” Jack trailed off, a small bitter chuckle exiting his lips the like of which Rose had never heard. Rose didn’t realize he was actually expecting an answer until he glanced at her, eyebrow cocked. 

“Give me a rough estimate?” Rose said, unable to think of what else to say.

“Around two thousand or so years, give or take,” Jack replied calmly.


End file.
